Blog
History in the making
I last wrote about Ukraine on March 29th, when the conflict was just a month old and everyone was surprised how long the war had lasted. Well, soon the conflict will be three months old, with no immediate prospect of ending soon. I’ll write about the war from a...
History repeats itself once more
Kviv, World War IIKviv, 2022We watch the agony of Ukraine in sorrow but we should not watch it in surprise. This was, alas, so predictable. Only those who do not know the past can be surprised or shocked—the pundits and commentators throughout the global media who are...
Grumman F4F Martlet
This is the third of three blogs devoted to aircraft that were not as quite successful as some of their contemporaries, but which fought to the limit of their abilities and deserve honorable mentions in the annals of aviation history. This time it’s the Grumman...
Westland Whirlwind
This is the second of three blogs devoted to aircraft that were not as successful as some of their contemporaries, but which fought to the limit of their abilities and deserve honorable mentions in the annals of aviation history. This time it’s the Westland Whirlwind,...
Bolton Paul Defiant
History tends to focus on winners and pass over the also-rans. Histories of military aviation in World War II tend to favor the Spitfires and the P51s, the B17s and the Lancasters, while other aircraft that, for a multitude of reasons, did not quite achieve the same...
February 6th, 1952
I remember being in school 70 years ago on February 6th, 1952, at Gordonbrock School near Ladywell in South London. We were called to assembly and told that King George VI had died and that Princess Elizabeth was now Queen. We knelt on the floor and said a prayer for...
